WGA’s Verrone and Winship on a media blitz

Leaders of the WGA West and WGA East have been on a media tour this ayem talking about the strike, the new contract and what it all means. Here's a transcript from the joint appearance of Patric Verrone and Michael Winship on Fox Business Network. (Pic and transcript supplied by Fox Biz)

On the 17-to-24-day promotional window for web streaming that has been the focal point of complaints by scribes, Winship said:

“We would have liked to have closed that window completely. That is one of the things we did not achieve in this contract and something we will be working on going forward. The important thing is that we got jurisdiction in new media, we got jurisdiction in the Internet and we got a percentage of the distributors’ gross. These were our major goals and we achieved those.”

Winship on whether the networks will air programs after 17 days that would require them to pay writers:

“I think that they will because they’ll recognize the value of those programs being on beyond that window.”

Verrone on the exclusion of animation and reality TV writers from the contract:

“We certainly heard from them and it was a heartbreaking thing for me as an animation writer…Those writers are more or less the sweatshop writers in this industry and our hope going forward is that we can improve that situation and get coverage from them.”

“This will be a great priority for us – organizing animation and reality.”

Verrone on how the WGA and the conglomerates came to a deal:

“The key sticking point was the preservation of the future of the Internet and the writers’ share in it…Your CEO, Peter Chernin, and the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, came into the picture, along with Les Moonves of CBS, behind the scenes to help us work out some of the details…”

Winship on the role the Directors Guild of America and their contract played in getting negotiations for the WGA back on track:

“I think the Directors Guild deal was achieved largely because we went on strike.”